High Volume Meets Consistent Quality

Beverage products from Nestlé Professional™ Vitality, including coffees, specialty drinks and mixers, and patented dispensing systems, can be found on nearly every cruise ship in the world. With cruise line customers’ incredibly high volumes, service time expectations, and training costs, Vitality needed a blending machine that would operate easily with the push of a button and stand up to years of demanding use.

Vitality Cruise Ship Services and Customer Relations Manager Pam Elliott says the best thing about the Vitamix Portion Blending System is its sturdiness and reliability under extremely heavy use. “A regular restaurant might make 10, 20, or even 100 frozen drinks in a day, but on a cruise ship, they’ll make 2,000 to 3,000 just in an afternoon. And not just cocktails, but smoothies, too,” said Elliott. “We needed a machine that could withstand that kind of volume while consistently producing high-quality beverages. We’ve tested other machines, but the Vitamix Portion Blending System is the only one that’s been able to meet our high standards.”

Elliott says reliability is especially important to cruise lines as a ship will often be in port for only a day or two at a time, leaving little time for maintenance and repairs. “The less time we have to spend servicing a machine, the more time that machine can be making drinks—and profits—for us and our cruise line customers,” Elliott said.

The relatively high turnover rate of foodservice workers on cruise ships causes a constant need for training, making the simplicity of the Portion Blending System another huge benefit. It can easily be programmed to make up to four drinks at a time with the simple push of a button. And because the system dispenses precisely the right amount of each ingredient every time, cruise line operators don’t have to worry about bartenders over- or under-pouring, or customers becoming dissatisfied with the quality of their drinks. “The cruise line operator controls their costs by not wasting ingredients, and their customers are happy because they get a perfectly blended drink that tastes the same every time,” said Elliott.